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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Long time no see! A lot has happened since we last spoke, but I won't bore you with personal yada yada. Let's talk about food, baby!
There aren't any chocolate chips in my chorizo. Sorry, I just said that to lure you here. This post is an ode to chocolate chips and chorizo, though they are never featured in the same dish. Should we get started?

These are Sal's Banana, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate Chip Muffins. Do make them asap! That's a winning triple-threat right there. Elvis would most definitely approve. Sal made a fancy pants chocolatey drizzle for these, but I was too lazy. I made them with whole wheat pastry flour, but not because I'm too good for all purpose flour, I just didn't have any at the time. They are excellent with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Jessy's Gluten-Free Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Good luck eating only one or two of these addictive little cookies though. It can't be done! I made my own brown rice flour using my Blendtec because I'm cool like that. Jessy said that they are fantastical with a scoop of vanilla coconut ice cream on top, and she didn't lie!

Katie's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are actually supposed to be hubbard squash cookies, but Katie said it would be OK to use pumpkin. These little drops of Autumn in this annoying (almost) Summer are a lovely bite-sized treat. Mr. Wing-It said he could eat a whole tray of them, but he would have some fierce competition from me. I took the liberty of sprinkling a few cookies with powdered sugar, because Mr. Wing-It doesn't like it. Mwahaha! *evil*

This wasn't the first time I made Andrea's Orange Chocolate Chip Cake. I blogged about it during Vegan MoFo 2010, and I still feel the same way about cranberries so I left them out again. The cake is made with a combination of white whole wheat flour, almond flour, and coconut flour, which gives the cake a terrific texture. It's deliciously flavored with ginger, cinnamon, and orange, and the chocolate chips give it an extra dose of awesome! Too lazy to make a glaze, I just sprinkled a bit of sugar on top of the raw cupcakes.

Mandee's Gluten-Free Chorizo is amazing! Mandee came up with a gluten-free chorizo recipe by doing a mash-up of a gluten-free sausage recipe + the chorizo recipe from Viva Vegan. The results were brilliant. Of course, it's not as chewy as gluten based faux meats, but the sausage has a firm, pleasant texture and it smells and tastes very much like chorizo. The first time I made it I had it sautéed with some steamed potatoes, wilted baby spinach, and a sprinkling of Daiya.

Alisa's Cauliflower Risotto is fantastic! I love cauliflower "rice", and the creaminess of this "risotto" was a lovely change for me, because I had only ever had dry and crumbly cauli-rice. I used olive oil for mine, in case you're wondering. I also made a batch with steamed broccoli, but the pictures came out incredibly horrid. That is indeed more sautéed chorizo sitting pretty on top of the risotto, thank you for asking.

Jes' Southern-Style Chorizo Soup looks a little different than the original here, because instead of using Trader Joe's soy chorizo I used Mandee's. The soup is hearty and comforting, and the chorizo adds a wonderful flavor. I chopped the gluten-free chorizo before adding it to the soup, and the flours from the sausage thickened the soup a bit and made it more like a stew. I did have to add a couple of teaspoons of paprika to the soup because my chorizo wasn't as pigmented as Joe's is.

Mihl's Dark Wholemeal Bread with Flax Seeds has neither chocolate chips nor chorizo. It is however a beautiful, wholesome, delicious loaf of bread. I'm pretty sure that I didn't make my dough moist enough, but that's OK, that only means that I get to make it again in the near future. This bread is absolutely perfect with some jam and a good cup of coffee, or fauxfee.

So there you have it, a round-up of awesome recipes that I have bookmarked while I quietly and creepily stalk other bloggers from the comfort of my hermit cave. It's nice to let other people be in charge of what we cook every now and then, isn't it?

You're welcome, and thank you for stopping by! Chocolate and peanut butter together are always good, but banana takes them to a whole new level of awesome! And that chorizo is so tasty it's going to be a regular menu item for me now.

It's always a treat to see a post from you! And what an honor to be mentioned among the recipes. I'm glad you're still blogging even a little — super photos, interesting recipes and good humor. I've gone GF, and made note of the GF seitan for something new to play with. Come back again soon. (No need to wait for Halloween!)

Thank you, Andrea! Definitely give the gluten-free chorizo a try now that you're not doing gluten anymore. It doesn't have the same chewiness as gluten based meats, but those tasty seasonings are what make it so good. I wonder how it would be thinly sliced on pizza...

River! squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! hiya and hello, friend! not only was i crazy excited to see your post, but i was most happyfaced you tried the coconut chocolate chip cookies... you are too awesome! i've been meaning to make Mandee's gluten-free chorizo for a while now, i just keep forgetting. it's going to happen this weekend. it will! i must! totally going to try Jes' soup and i shall make a loaf of Mihl's dark bread for dan. you've got so much deliciousness going on - what a post!

Hi Jessy! I loved the coconut chocolate chip cookies! Your gluten free peanut butter cookies are next on my list. Yes! You must make the chorizo! Now I'm kicking myself for not trying it on pizza, and I'm going to have to wait until the next time we go home to take a few days off. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did! And the soup! And the bread!

Hi Alisa! Your cauliflower risotto was so good! I keep trying to convince Mr. Wing-It to switch from rice to cauliflower, but he won't do it. Maybe half rice and half cauliflower would be a good start. Men! :P

River! Oh so wonderful to have you back! And now I have a million (well, ten or whatever) new recipes that I must make stat! Totally forgot about Jessy's chocolate chip cookies--now I've got a super craving. And thanks for the shout-out on the chorizo soup--I really want to try it with the gluten-free sausages, looks incredible!

Hi Jes! Thank you! I am not *quite* back, but it's nice to peek outside my cave for a while. Definitely make the chorizo! I need to make some more next time we go home, and I want to make a double batch to see how well it freezes. It's nice to have it handy to spice up a boring dish (like my potatoes with spinach).

Wow, that's quite a round up! I've been poking my head out occasionally, too. I'm back to the "Oh, someone commented, yay!" phase. Two comments and a phone mention from my mom and I feel like a rock star!

It's nice to "see" you too! I've been eyeing the Havarti wedges for a couple of weeks, and as soon as they go on sale I'm going to have to get me some. Or maybe I'll just buy them at full price! I'll definitely melt them on veggie burgers-thanks for the tip!

Blogging can be such fun, but sometimes it's nice to take a break and sort of step back and look at blogging from a different perspective. I think I know what I want to do with Wing-It now, if only I could just stick with it and blog more regularly!

Awesome! I hope you do! If you need any help at all setting up your blog or adjusting the template to your liking, let me know and and I'll be happy to help. (I am very familiar with blogger but not familiar with wordpress at all)

This looks delicious!I nominated you on my blog for the Versatile Blogger award :) You can read about it on my blog if you so choose. http://milk-and.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/beef-and-bean-sausage-rolls.html

You have been missed! Don't stay gone so long next time. (I'm very infrequent myself, though, as I've noticed is true for a lot of people these days.) I keep meaning to do a post like this with my experiences with others' recipes.

Thanks, Jenny! It's true, lots of us old-timers are kind of blogged out, I suppose. It's hard work to be a frequent blogger! Blogging about other people's recipes is easier and lazy-blogger-friendly! :P